Actually, college fairs aren't that bad. I was just at one this week, and it was a new experience, but it wasn't too scary. If you're planning on visiting one of these things sometime in the future though, here's my post on what to expect at a college fair.
For starters, you can expect to be asked a lot of questions. The three main ones are:
"Do you have any questions?"
If the person at the booth really has no idea what they're doing, they'll ask you this question first. I don't know why, so please don't ask me. But unless you came up with a list of specific things you want to know about each and every school you talk to, you'll probably end up answering this question with "no." The way I see it is this: You probably don't know anything about this school yet, so you have no knowledge to base your questions on. Plus, as my dad pointed out to me later, it's a bad idea to ask a closed-end question.
"Are you a junior or a senior?"
I understand wanting to know what year of high school a potential student is in, but does it always have to be junior or senior year? As some of you may already know, I'm a sophomore. So when people at college fairs ask me if I'm a junior or senior, I just feel the tiniest bit neglected. I don't mind that people are asking me what year I'm in, but does it have to be junior or senior year?
"What are you thinking of studying?" / "What do you think you want to major in?"
This question actually isn't so bad as it is repetitive. Every person you talk to is going to ask you this question, so you should be prepared with an answer. If you haven't decided for sure what you want to study, that's okay. Even so, it's nice to at least have an idea of what you might want to do.
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You're going to be getting a lot of papers and brochures and cards and fact sheets and all sorts of stuff at the college fair. And believe me, it's hard to carry all of that stuff around for an hour or however long you stay. So it's a good idea to bring a bag of some sort. It doesn't have be huge though, just wide enough to be able to carry a regular size sheet of paper. Something like a drawstring backpack would work well.
Another thing to bring would be a pen. It's likely that a lot of the tables or booths that you visit will have pens for you to use, but it's a good idea to have your own just in case.
And my last tip: Plan out who you want to see ahead of time. If you have a pretty general idea of what you want in a college, you can input those requirements into a website like College Board (https://www.collegeboard.org/), and then cross-reference your results with the list of schools that are going to be at the fair.
This is an especially good idea if you only have a limited time at the college fair, but it's still a good idea to know exactly who you want to talk to. Of course, if you have the extra time, visit other tables as well - you might discover a school you like that you had never even heard of before!
So those are my tips and advice on college fairs! Do you have any of your own? Feel free to share in the comments!
Until next time!
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